In order to work out the specifics of a potential military intervention in Niger should diplomacy fail to thwart a military coup, West African army leaders have been holding discussions in Ghana’s capital Accra for the past two days. On Friday, they were scheduled to hold their final day of negotiations there.
In response to appeals from the United Nations, the West African ECOWAS group, and others to reinstate Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, military commanders overthrew him on July 26. As a result, regional powers ordered the formation of a standby force.
Defence chiefs have been debating logistics and other facets of a potential deployment during their two-day meeting, which concludes with a closing ceremony at around 4pm, according to the official agenda.
The use of force remains a last resort, but “if everything else fails, the valiant forces of West Africa … are ready to answer to the call of duty,” ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said at the start of the event on Thursday.
He said that all but three of the 15 members of the bloc—Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea—and the tiny island nation of Cape Verde—were willing to join the standby force.
The impoverished Sahel region of West Africa, which is already dealing with a ten-year Islamist insurgency, will become even more unstable with any increase.
Because of its uranium and oil riches and its function as a hub for foreign soldiers engaged in the conflict with insurgents affiliated to al Qaeda and the Islamic State, Niger also has strategic significance outside of West Africa.